Discovering me … one stitch at a time

Tag: books

1. I have recently become obsessed with houseplants. My favorites are Angelvines, which look so wild and tangled and spontaneous (everything I am not) and Chinese Money Plants. I didn’t know until I checked Le Google, but this is a popular plant for propagating and sharing with friends. Now if only I had some plant loving friends.

Angelvine in the front…

Chinese money plant… It’s so cute!

2. We got a new (used) piano and I had my first lesson this week. My favorite part about playing is that it requires full concentration and focus and I kinda get lost in it. It reminds me a little bit of cross stitch in that way. I am working on Let it Be by the Beatles, which is probably every beginning piano player’s first song. It is SO FUN!

Charlie disapproves of all the noise I make.

3. Tom and I finally splurged on a King sized bed. Now we no longer have to contort ourselves around Charlie and his bed hogging ways.

It feels rather luxurious!

4. We have house guests arriving this weekend who will be staying for a week!

No photo… Just imagine me frantically cleaning.

5. These are my latest reads. I suppose this is a pretty good representation of my current interests.

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It was very unproductive around here this weekend, between having my nose stuck in a new library book (about that scandalous Henry VIII) and playing Pokemon Go.

I was so lazy and barely left the house, except to chase Pokemon in the yard. Tom took this picture of me while in hot pursuit of one. This game is so addictive!

By Saturday night, everyone was getting a little bored so we went to the mall to run some errands. I had heard through the grapevine that the Summer edition of CrossStitcher was finally available here in the US, so you better believe that we went to Barnes & Noble to look for it.

Imagine the disappointment when I found this big EMPTY space where CrossStitcher should be. It was sold out!

We are a determined bunch though, and this just meant a trip to a different Barnes & Noble. Behold… the Summer issue in which yours truly is a correspondent!

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So I need your advice. I know my photos suck and the colors aren’t accurate at all… but what should I do with her skin?

To start, I like how ghostly pale she is supposed to look.

I don’t know. It appeals to my love of the macabre.

But my fabric choice is too light, and the color doesn’t show up, so I used something a little more creamy. Eh.

I don’t know how I feel about it. These are other colors I have laying around. Peachy? Darker? Sigh… none of them look right! Should I try straight up white? HELP!

It is so hot here this week. So hot. My goal is to stay inside the air conditioning as much as possible. It’s good to have realistic goals.

We had a very lazy weekend. Littlest and I dropped Biggest off at a birthday party and then walked around the mall while we were waiting.

Littlest fell in love with this chair which is just about the ugliest thing ever.

He swore that he would come back one day and buy it for his first apartment. I’m apologizing now to his future wife who will be stuck with it some day.

That night, we all went to an antique car show. Biggest, our resident car guy, loved seeing all of them, especially the DeLorean. I have to admit that it was pretty cool as far as cars go… shiny and silvery like a refrigerator!

Sunday we spent home because… ugh… heat.

There was Lego playing…

and snoozing…

and science experimenting…

and a little pickle making thrown in for good measure.

And lots of reading!

I finished Gone Girl. It was so disturbing! And she was so insane! And no one was likable! It was a page turner for sure, but too psychologically upsetting for me. I’ll stick to my Little House on the Prairie books from now on, thank you very much.

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This Monday I am dragging my feet. We leave in 2 days and I still have so much to do, which means that I will do NOTHING! Funny how that works.

This weekend, I personalized Pikachu for Littlest.

It is hard to work when you have a fat cat who wants attention all the time.

I’m so adorable… Pet me…

I was originally going to sew a cover for Littlest’s Pokemon collection, but got lazy and just stuck it in a binder.

You’re taking a photo? Should I get into it?

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning and tidying because due to some kind of weird vacation psychology, the house needs to be in tip top shape before we can go anywhere. This meant that I didn’t even begin packing until Sunday afternoon, which meant that I didn’t discover that NONE of my shorts and swimsuits fit until 4PM. (Btw, Tom’s shorts TOTALLY fit, which is TOTALLY not fair.) So what do you do on Sunday at 4PM when you’ve gotten too fat for all of your shorts and swimsuits? You race to the mall in a desperate attempt to find some clothes before closing time. Not fun.

But let me tell you what IS fun!

My Laura Ingalls Wilder biography arrived!!! Wheeeeeee! It’s taking all my willpower to save it for beach reading! Man! I know how to have a good time!

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While on the cruise, I rediscovered my love of reading. I plowed through The Hunger Games (probably the last person on Earth to read it) and The Other Boleyn Girl. Both were so good! Last night, the boys and I went to the library so that I could check out Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I am already half way through Catching Fire. I can’t put it down.

Today I ordered a new sewing machine and I am very excited! Although my Mom worked as a professional seamstress for many years, I never picked up her talents. I can’t wait for it to arrive. Homemade pajama pants for everyone!!!

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Work is so busy and stressful, but I kinda love that. I am realizing that I am much happier when I am busy and productive. I have had to work late 2 nights this week! People who know me in real life know that this is CRAZY. I would rather go into the office at the crack of dawn than stay late.

This week included long train trips, so I am blowing through my books. I loved My Life in France by Julia Child. I find her intriguing and quite a trailblazer and can’t get enough of her! I don’t have the patience to master French cooking, but do want to read her cookbooks now. I love reading cookbooks even if I don’t attempt the recipes. Does anyone else do this? I particularly like the long-winded ones that give a lot of background information about a recipe or go into great detail about why you need to use room temperature butter.

I also finished Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. I know that there was a lot of criticism about the author’s parenting style when this book came out, but as an Asian American (and occasional Tiger) Mother, I could totally relate to some of her beliefs (although I do agree that she goes way overboard). It was a quick and interesting read.

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It is HOT here in Pennsylvania. Too hot to be outside, even at the pool, so we spent a lot of time indoors this weekend.

I enjoyed lounging on the couch in the air conditioning, but the boys were going stir crazy.

Since I burned out our blender making black bean brownies a few weeks ago, we ventured out to buy a new one. I wanted a Vitamix, but settled for a Ninja. Little boy voted for that one because of the cool name. We celebrated our new purchase by making mango salsa and slushies. They were a hit.

Since we were searching for cool indoor activities, we headed to the library to pick out books. We ended up with a strange collection of subjects.

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Another train day yesterday. This time I didn’t bother to bring a cross stitch project and brought a book along instead.

What a pleasant decision that turned out to be. It was so interesting! I loved reading about the characteristics and designs of different regions and teachers. And I especially loved learning about the girls behind the stitching. I think that’s one of my favorite things about needlework; the knowing that an actual person made each little stitch with their own hands. I like wondering what their life was like and what they were feeling while they worked.

It seems as though my evolution into crazy cross stitch lady is almost complete! I foresee a future of dragging my family to obscure needle arts museums in the middle of nowhere on vacation. Sorry in advance, Family! I promise that we can stop at a water park on the way home.

In other news, I got bangs. I feel a little weird in them. If you haven’t figured out by now, I am never happy with my hair.